The Hindu Business Line : Redefine problems for creative solutions bookmark

It may be unusual to find Cochin Port discussed at length in a book on creativity, but that’s what Premilla D’Cruz does in Thinking Creatively at Work: A Sourcebook ( www.sagepu blications.com), when using a case study developed by Ernesto Noronha, a professor of IIM-Ahmedabad.

“Kochi (or Cochin) was perceived to be an ideal location on the west coast to set up a transhipment hub as it is very close to Colombo,” begins the narrative. “In 1984, an area of about 440 acres of land at the Vallarpadam Island was reclaimed as part of the integrated development project of Cochin Port.” The author then goes on to describe the many hurdles that the project faced, even as a climate of suspicion, doubt, anxiety and fear continued to grip the workers.

Redefining the problem provides the opportunity to look at the situation from different viewpoints, observes D’Cruz. “Generally, the initial way in which one looks at a problem is biased by past experience, learning, knowledge and habit, and redefinition permits alternative points of view to emerge, often leading to a holistic understanding.”

Useful guide to kick-start creativity.

Begin with a market map

Marketing Planning Malcolm McDonald

Market segmentation helps a firm to target its limited resources on the most promising opportunities by sorting customers into economically manageable and prioritisable groups, says Malcolm McDonald on Marketing Planning ( www.vivagroupindia.com).

A useful way to tackle market segmentation is by drawing a market map, the author suggests. He explains how such a map defines the distribution and value chain between the supplier and the end user, or consumer, taking into account the various buying mechanisms found in a market, including the part played by ‘influencers,’ or third parties that advise on or otherwise sway the outcome of the purchasing decision.

“By tracing the ‘routes’ of transactions in your market, it is possible to identify the most important routes, as well as the key junctions where decisions are made and segmentation could occur.”

Well-analysed and coherently presented.

Lifeline to the customer

A Complaint is a Gift Janelle Barlow and Clause Møller

Nobody likes complaints. More so the customer service departments, as most of us would have learnt by experience as consumers. So, it comes as a refreshingly different message when Janelle Barlow and Clause Møller say complaints are an underuti lised source of consumer and market information.

“Complaining customers are still talking with us, giving us an opportunity to recapture their interest so they will be more likely to buy from us again,” they write in A Complaint is a Gift, second edition ( www.tatamcgrawhill.com).

Groundbreaking ideas may not come from complaining customers. “But customer feedback can help fine-tune product concepts for particular groups of people.” For businesses that need to be responsive to quickly changing market conditions, listening and rapidly responding to complaints helps them stay in touch with customer expectations, counsel Barlow and Møller. “Market research can be static compared to the complaining, dynamic, talking marketplace.”

D. Murali

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